Letter: Elected representatives

Published: Friday, Dec. 6 2013 12:00 a.m. MST

Amazingly, some Americans don’t think it matters if our elected officials purposely deceive us. Those citizens, including the media, often make excuses for elected officials who have deceived us about major issues like Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal targeting conservative groups, the NSA tracking average American citizens, the government spying on the Associated Press, the Benghazi attack supposedly being caused by an offensive video and now the Affordable Care Act falsehood that we can keep our health care plan if we like it.

Why does it matter? (Unbelievably, that was Hillary Clinton’s question regarding the attack in Benghazi). It matters because our freedom as American citizens is based on the Declaration’s “self-evident truth” that good governments “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” And, how can “the governed” make wise and informed decisions about whom to vote for if their leaders — regardless of political party — lie to them?

Applying that principle to recent events, would the majority of Americans have voted for Barack Obama if they had known before the 2012 election that he was lying about Obamacare and Benghazi? Honesty and truthfulness — among both citizens and their leaders — are absolutely necessary if we are to remain a free people. On every level, the truth does make us free.